1.2.2-Pilferingapples
Brick!Club Day 15 1.2.2:Prudence Urged Upon Wisdom Well I’ve been here today but my internet connection hasn’t, thanks storms! BUT IT IS STILL TECHNICALLY TUESDAY LET’S GO. pretty much all Baptistine and Magloire this chapter! I am TOTALLY OKAY with this. I’ve mentioned before I love Hugo’s lavish descriptions, and we get some here, so I’m happy! Also I’ll pretty much read character interaction all day (hello, all my bookmarked fic) so a whole chapter that’s nothing but two previously almost-silent characters talking with each other is a little bit of candy for me. I love Magloire’s attitude— getting locks installed in one night and for one nights seems a bit unhelpful, but she’s still sticking up for herself and trying to make herself heard, based on what she knows of the situation. And I’m glad she and Baptistine act more like friends than anything else, because geez, Baptistine, even the narrative voice is sort of beating her up (and that dress, I may cry, NINE YEARS OLD?? and she cleans house as a main pastime? That thing’s gotta be falling apart.), she could use a buddy. Not much plot to discuss here- Magloire’s just voicing her worldly concerns again, oh, women and their not wanting to get stabbed at night, amiright? Except, given how spaced out the Bishop is in the middle of it all- it feels like a concession that yeah, Myriel is not 100 percent aware of things he maybe SHOULD be aware of, and maybe his maid and sister need to be a little more pushy about bringing the world to his attention some times. AND THEN A KNOCK OH THE DRAMA. Tomorrow: ACTUALLY POSTING IN THE DAY I HOPE, come ON, storm. Commentary Gascon-en-exile What strikes me most about this otherwise rather unimportant chapter (unimportant in the sense that the prudence conseillée Magloire gives here is immediately and somewhat comically disregarded) is how it both reinforces and defies archetypes of femininity. The lengthy descriptions of Baptistine and Magloire’s respective outfits maintain the outward appearance of rank; “madame Magloire avait l’air d’une paysanne et mademoiselle Baptistine d’une dame” (“Madame Magloire had the air of a peasant and Mademoiselle Baptistine one of a lady”). This still holds true even though Baptistine’s is woefully outdated and would, indeed, probably be in pretty bad shape at this point. Moreover, Baptistine, though an old maid in position and appearance - old maids are never pretty in literature, because otherwise they’d logically have gotten husbands - is not here an object a ridicule but one of near-sainthood approaching that of her brother. We are told that “la nature n’en avait fait qu’une brebis, la religion en avait fait un ange” (“Nature had only made her a sheep, but religion had made her an angel”). Gee, a female angel in mid-19th century literature - have I beat that point into the ground enough yet? In any case, Hugo does make the explicit connection between religion and angelic qualities in a woman that much of Victorian literature curiously downplays, so he gets points for actually remembering that angels are supposed to be attached to real divinity. I also have to mention briefly the fact that Myriel at the start of the chapter is engaged on writing a theological treatise on Devoirs (Duties) that we are told he never gets to finish. Aside from duty toward oneself, all the many other subjects of this treatise involve interaction with others and with the world. Perhaps we are to read Myriel here as primarily occupied with the (spiritually grounded) theoretical side of interpersonal relationships, such that he might be starting to neglect the real-world applications thereof. Well, un devoir is knocking at your door… Pilferingapples (reply to Gascon-en-exile) OOOF. Hadn’t considered that. Our Bishop maybe getting a little too abstracted? He actually seems more earthbound and aware here than in some passages past, putting aside his work for his sister’s sake, but then he is completely ignoring Magloire(and then partially ignoring her…).